Piper Lather's Orange Is The New Black
Reading the excerpt from Piper Kerman’s Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison book places the reader in the shoes of the main character, Kerman. In the excerpt, Kerman evokes the reader’s pity, as well as interest, through a description of the fear and nerves she is experiencing turning herself in to the federal prison. As she undergoes several unpleasant procedures, Kerman expresses believable emotions. She hates the dehumanizing feeling of her circumstances, from standing naked in front of examining eyes to receiving her new serial number. On the other hand she is also afraid of her unfriendly surroundings, like the sharp razor fence. By latching onto any friendliness, be it from the doctor or from the other inmates, she seeks
…show more content…
As her genre is a memoir, she tells her story as though she were sitting directly across from the reader. She accomplishes this with first-person pronouns and a constant commentary on her surroundings from her own thoughts. In keeping with the casual memoir theme, some designs she chooses to use include wry humor. For example, in line 55, Kerman refers to her drab guard as Ms. Personality. She also paints the world and people surrounding her in different ways through expressing her thoughts periodically throughout the excerpt. Drawing attention to the razor fence, ill-tempered remarks from the guards, and the flitting glimpses of sky, Kerman paints the picture of an abysmal and horrible place to be. These stylistic techniques help support her purpose: to convey to readers the unpleasant and seemingly dehumanizing ordeal of prison life. By telling everything from her perspective, she assumes the role of protagonist in the prison. From this position Kerman communicates with her readers, her audience. The audience Piper Kerman appears to be writing to would seem to be everybody she can reach. Her purpose in writing is such that her message could be received by almost everyone. Granted, prison staff and whoever was affected by her crime may think the story too melodramatic or unrealistic based on their experiences, but to the majority of her audience the experience is unfamiliar or maybe foreign. Ultimately, Piper Kerman’s story manages, through her literary devices, to evoke pity and support for her despite the fact that she is a criminal going to jail just as she
As her genre is a memoir, she tells her story as though she were sitting directly across from the reader. She accomplishes this with first-person pronouns and a constant commentary on her surroundings from her own thoughts. In keeping with the casual memoir theme, some designs she chooses to use include wry humor. For example, in line 55, Kerman refers to her drab guard as Ms. Personality. She also paints the world and people surrounding her in different ways through expressing her thoughts periodically throughout the excerpt. Drawing attention to the razor fence, ill-tempered remarks from the guards, and the flitting glimpses of sky, Kerman paints the picture of an abysmal and horrible place to be. These stylistic techniques help support her purpose: to convey to readers the unpleasant and seemingly dehumanizing ordeal of prison life. By telling everything from her perspective, she assumes the role of protagonist in the prison. From this position Kerman communicates with her readers, her audience. The audience Piper Kerman appears to be writing to would seem to be everybody she can reach. Her purpose in writing is such that her message could be received by almost everyone. Granted, prison staff and whoever was affected by her crime may think the story too melodramatic or unrealistic based on their experiences, but to the majority of her audience the experience is unfamiliar or maybe foreign. Ultimately, Piper Kerman’s story manages, through her literary devices, to evoke pity and support for her despite the fact that she is a criminal going to jail just as she